To which I usually respond with "Nononononono!"
I love Grey's anatomy. But ER drives me a little crazy. People never code as often as they do in those shows. No one ever says "STAT!" And med students never, ever do that much. And they don't show the people with fevers and sore throats and chest pain and all the other stuff that makes up 90% of my day.
But my last 2 shifts were straight out of the TV show. Seriously.
- 3 stabbings to the box (chest)
- 2 gun shot wounds to the box (chest).
- One ED delivery (baby). We try to never do this -- there is almost no one we can't get to Labor and Delivery fast enought
- 3 fast hurry-up-about-to-code trauma chest tubes (including one which put out almost a liter of blood and went straight up to the OR after the tube clotted. these garden hose tubes don't clot).
- 2 ED thoracotomies. I.e. split the chest open and hope you find something bleeding you can stop quickly because the person just lost their pulse. We do these approximately once a year because there a only a few reasons to do it. We had two back to back tonight, 20 min apart, we had to call up to the OR for some extra equipment. And we got one back.
- then, breathe, and back the the elderly gentleman who needs to be sedated so we can fix and splint his leg, admit the patient with a stroke and admit the patient and calm down the really anxious gentleman in the back.
Which explains why I'm blogging at 230 am because I am wired. I love my job.
Man what a day!!! Matt is right there with you on this one. All his high school buddies ask him if his life is like thoses shows to which he laughs and laughs. I can't even watch ER anymore because he ruins it for me.
ReplyDeleteoh my gravy! that's NUTS! so glad every day isn't like that...
ReplyDeleteHOLY COW! I'd be wired for life. I can't believe you can handle all that pressure! Aren't you scared out of your life to treat things like that?
ReplyDeleteokay, stop, you're getting me all turned on now with talk of ED thoracotomies and chest tubes...send me more some tantilizing details puh-leeze (only 7 more weeks and counting...until I can blatently insult and brutally mock Grey's Anatomy again) :) I will always love ER though, thank you very much. :)
ReplyDeleteholy cow Kelly! You have to love your job to do all that! You're doing an amazing thing, we need more people like you in our hospitals!
ReplyDeleteED - it was pretty great. You would have been jealous. And one was the perfect scenario -- stab wound to the L chest, huge pericardial effusion on ultrasound, pressure of 90, lost pulses after he got intubated. Hole in the L ventricle which we plugged and then he got sent up to the OR. Extubated and transferred out of the SICU 2 days later.
ReplyDeleteSo, sounds a little different than psych! Wow. Matt and I are in awe of you. His most exciting thing yesterday was taking off someone's mole.:) That really sounds nutty though. Glad you lived through it. It would have been perfect if a helicopter had crashed in the parking lot during this time or if someone (like your evil attending) just had his arm chopped off by the helicopter blade (I'm kidding to anyone who thinks I'm cruel...I'm quoting the show and the reason I stopped watching ER).
ReplyDeleteLove this post! Bryan and I watch Greys Anatomy cuz its fun to see their "perspective" on residency life. He loves to show me what in the show is totally ridiculous. What a crazy night you had! But fun, in a morbid way.
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